Windows PowerShell ISE: Develop Your Scripts

Windows PowerShell ISE (Integrated Scripting Environment) is a bundled script editor for PowerShell. Here is why you should use it.

Beyond the PowerShell Prompt

PowerShell is a command line tool at its core. It can be used to its fullest extent from an interactive shell prompt. But beyond ad-hoc work, cmdlet exploration and command one-liners, you should be using a script editor for building more complex PowerShell scripts. Luckily, beginning with PowerShell v2 the Windows PowerShell ISE has been included as a companion PowerShell script development environment. The rest of this post is specifically referencing Windows PowerShell ISE v5 (Windows 10), but a lot of these features are included in earlier versions too.

Advantages of Windows PowerShell ISE

Windows PowerShell ISE is more than just a graphical editor for writing and running scripts (though that is an advantage itself!). Here are some of the ISE features that will make your PowerShell work much more pleasant:

Syntax highlighting. Makes code MUCH more readable!

Intellisense (Auto-completion). Provides suggestions to complete cmdlet names, assist with available parameter options for a cmdlet, or show available variables or object properties. This works in both the editor pane as well as the console pane.

Tabbed interface. Have multiple script files open at one time within the same window. I usually have one tab containing my master script, another tab for writing and testing a particular section of the script, and potentially another scratch tab for just trying stuff out.

Selective execution. Taking a page from SQL Management Studio, you can highlight a selection of continuous lines and execute them independently from the rest of the script. This is useful if you just want to test one line of code, or re-load a variable with a different value.

Debugging. Coupled with the cmdlet Set-PSBreakpoint, walk through your script for in-depth troubleshooting and analysis.

Code folding. Collapse functions, comment sections, and regions to make a script easier to read.

Extend Functionality with Add-Ons

In addition to a great set of core features, Windows PowerShell ISE is extendable via Add-Ons. An Add-On can be created with Visual Studio, and there is a growing ecosystem of community created Add-Ons. A good place to start is with three Microsoft authored Add-Ons that are easily findable in the ISE under the menu item Add-Ons:

What’s Next for Windows PowerShell ISE

The ISE has always received an update in tandem with a new version of PowerShell and Windows Management Framework, but that may be changing. A recent announcement of a Windows PowerShell ISE preview edition promising to add features and functionality at a faster pace may change how ISE is delivered.

Next Steps

Find Windows PowerShell ISE in your start menu and pin it to Start, pin it to your taskbar, put a shortcut on your desktop, whatever works for you.